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A&E overcrowding 'pressures'

The pressures on A&E departments show "no sign of abating", Labour has warned after figures revealed that there has been a "major increase" in the number of ambulances turned away from busy emergency departments.

NHS Trust: Overcrowding shows 'working to full capacity'

The use of operating theatres to ventilate patients at Charing Cross hospital is a "symptom of a healthcare system working close to full capacity", a new report has shown.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Charing Cross, said patients would occasionally be kept in operating theatres as this was considered better than transferring them to an intensive care unit at another hospital. A spokesman:

This would be a temporary measure that enabled us to provide the safest possible care until a bed in the ICU became available.

This situation has now changed and patients taken from theatre to intensive care will be nursed by the doctor if specialist nurses are not available.